


Can't break these chains

by MapleBreeze



Series: Whumptober [1]
Category: The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst, During Canon, F/M, Fear, Imprisonment, Let's Hang Out Sometime, Oblivious, Pain, Reminiscing, Waking up Restrained, Whump, Whumptober 2020, shackled
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:47:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,685
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27299704
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MapleBreeze/pseuds/MapleBreeze
Summary: Gren opened his eyes with a start, disoriented, jerking his body against something hard. He looked around wildly in a panic, eyes skimming the room, shooting from side to side. But he was met with only stone walls.After being sent on his own mission, Gren wakes up in pain, chained and alone in a strange place.
Relationships: Amaya & Gren (The Dragon Prince), Amaya/Gren (The Dragon Prince), can be read as platonic or romantic - Relationship
Series: Whumptober [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1993201
Kudos: 11
Collections: Whumptober, Whumptober 2020





	Can't break these chains

**Author's Note:**

> Nothing like posting the very first prompt on the last day of October. So yeah this month got away from me. I did plan out a good amount of fics for this fest so I'll get to doing all of them eventually. There'll be a lot more of Gren angst coming  
> Anyways, enjoy!
> 
> Whumptober Day 1 - Let's Hang Out Sometime (waking up restrained, shackled, hanging)

Gren opened his eyes with a start, disoriented, jerking his body against something hard. He looked around wildly in a panic, eyes skimming the room, shooting from side to side. But he was met with only stone walls. The flash of fear he’d felt subsided; Viren was gone then. The thought was only slightly comforting.

He felt awful. Gren’s head pounded and there was a deep ache that made him feel strangely tired. Even his body felt unnaturally heavy. Moving seemed like too much of a task. Eventually he gained more feeling, the ache in his head growing smaller and the world seeming less foggy.

Then he felt it. The cold metal digging into his wrists.

His eyes darted to his hands, which were not where they should be. Instead of by his side, they were chained above his head in an unnatural stretch. His pale arms stood out in stark contrast to the dark stone that lined the chamber. His arms were bare, dotted with freckles and scars. Even his armor and shirt were gone. It had taken him a moment to realize that but now that he did, he felt even more unsettled.

He wondered briefly what Viren had in store for him. And a glance around the room didn’t make him calmer. The room was larger than a dungeon cell, so he could rule that out. There was empty space in front of him and doorways on either side, opening up to passages he couldn’t see the end of. The room didn’t look familiar in the slightest, which was surprising given that he knew the dungeons and prisons of Katolis fairly well. He’d spent time serving there and knew what the standard cells in the area looked like. This was not one of them. The strangeness of it unnerved Gren and it surprised him to know that he’d have a prison preference.

It was also weird that there were no doors in the room. Any proper cell had doors. Instead there were just empty archways and gaping hallways. He wondered why he was simply chained up but not locked in. It didn’t seem like Viren to overlook such a detail. Gren sighed, switching his weight to his other leg, he supposed there were other reasons. Maybe he didn’t think Gren was skilled enough to escape, which upset him, but he couldn’t blame him. There was always the worse option, like perhaps Viren knew there was no way anyone could reach him. The thought scared Gren. Always the optimist, the long-term problems hadn’t entered his mind yet, but now they did all at once. Did he have any chance to escape?

Gren’s mind raced, fearing for the worst. He could be stuck here forever; Amaya had no idea where he was. There was no one sent to rescue the princes. He’d failed them all.

Gren shifted his arms, trying to avoid some of the pain. Questions circled his head. What was Viren up to? What would happen to the princes? Maybe, it was all some sort of dream. It seemed wrong to go from Amaya’s warm arms in the courtyard to Viren’s dark eyes in just a few short moments. And being here felt even more unreal. But he couldn’t deny the pressing feeling of cold metal on his wrists.

Gren took a few deep breaths trying to stay calm. Yes, that was his specialty. He could put on that composed mask no matter what. He had to get through this. If he could get word to Amaya of Viren’s treachery, there might be something that could be done about whatever he was planning. Viren’s dark eyes and inhuman voice flashed in Gren’s mind once more. He took a shallow breath in an attempt to suppress his fear. Of course, this was all under the assumption that Viren didn’t have something worse planned for him.

Then he noticed the shelves on the far side of the room. The more he looked, the more he didn’t want to. There were dusty, old books, jars filled with unidentifiable moving things. There were candles and bones and rocks and various powders. Gren thought must be where Viren kept his tools for dark magic, but that did little to ease his mind.

What did that man want with him?

Gren felt himself shudder at the thought. Suddenly he could feel every ridge of the stone wall as it dug into his back. How the chains pulled his arms up and trapped them there. He was tired of standing but his arms seemed to ache more than anything else. Maybe he was sort of lucky Viren had taken his armor or else it’d just be extra weight to bear.

Gren took another deep breath, trying to stretch his shoulders and examining his chains once more. Right now, the ends of them were somewhere high above his head, vanishing into the dark ceiling. There was a piece of wood on the wall with brackets that looked like where the chains could also be attached to. Why would Viren do things this way?

Gren ran his fingers along the cuff of the same wrist, feeling for any weakness. He pressed around but found nothing, the metal seemed to be a perfect fit, no point where the pieces attached. _Magic._ He cast another glance upwards and gave a slight tug on the chain with one hand. With a grunt, he gave it a sharp yank, still hoping for some give. He heaved a breath and relaxed for a minute, feeling the scream of his muscles ease, before trying again. And he kept trying, one hand, other hand, both hands, twisting the chain across and pulling at it that way then the other. He tugged and tugged fruitlessly, praying for some weakness of his prison.

Gren fell back against wall, his sweaty back brushing against the cold stone, taking in gasps of air. He stilled himself again, willing to try once more. He had to keep trying. _For Amaya_. Gren stood up and stepped as far forward as he could, bringing his wrists above his head as close together as much as his chains allowed.

With a yell, Gren gave one final pull. Something felt like it shifted. But when he tested the chains again, he couldn’t move any further than before. He shook his head, eyes welling with tears, and let himself fall against the rough stone.

Gren laid there for who knows how long. The strain on his shoulders grew with each passing second. It felt like forever but was probably no more than a few hours. It took all his strength to keep standing, knowing that hanging by his wrists would be worse. It was frightening how the exhaustion was already getting to him when this was likely just the beginning.

Positivity was something that came naturally to Gren. It was easy to think the best of people and a little more hope never made anything more difficult. But, in this situation, it all felt different. He was not used to feeling so helpless. He hadn’t felt that way in so long. It was part of why he joined the army. He was no longer the weak, pushover, kid obsessed with languages. Here, his skills had a purpose, and he had the opportunity to work and become skilled in other areas as well. And the whole time, he was surrounded by allies and friends. Even when there were disagreements and irritable members, they were still united by their common goal. Gren found happiness in that comradery and even more with the general. It all seemed so far away now.

To be honest, when he was first assigned to interpret for her, he was kind of terrified. Well, what new recruit wouldn’t be? Despite her caring nature, everyone always saw her intimidating presence first. Now he saw so much more. Yes, he saw her scarily effective battle plans and rough language, but he also saw her endless compassion. He’d never thought he’d feel this uncomfortable without her, but then again, he never had a real chance before now to try it. A heaviness began settling in his chest.

It hurt to imagine what she would think if she were here to see his failure. How could he explain that he left her nephews to the mercy of Viren after only one day after she had warned him? Somehow this thought was what nagged him the most, even more than the fogginess in his head and the growing pain of his arms. Gren did not want to disappoint her, and something deeper stirred within him as he thought of the look on her face when she would realize what had happened.

He was useless. He couldn’t even find a way out of these simple chains. The tears had stopped falling long ago, staying locked away like his body. It would be so easy to resign himself to it. But he couldn’t give up for Amaya. _There has to be another way._ It felt flimsy and hard to believe. But he had to try to, at least for a little while. Pretend that he’d have another chance to see her kind smile.

With dry eyes, he dreamed of what was probably their last hug. _There’s no way you can escape._ His mind whispered, dark magic or not it would always come down to the same thing. _You’re not strong enough_. He waited there in the dimly lit chamber, hopeless and alone.

Then the ceiling shifted. There was a loud sound and he could suddenly see the stone spiraling down from above, forming stairs as it reached the ground. It definitely wasn’t any sort of normal dungeon then, but someplace secret, even harder to find. Gren stiffened in his chains, realizing that someone must be coming, and straightened himself. He had to pretend he was not afraid.

The stairs finally reached the floor, stone rubbing against stone. Gren winced at the sound, tensing up. But then he heard something worse.

The unmistakable click of Viren’s staff on the steps echoed in the dark.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed! 
> 
> When I saw this prompt I knew I had to do something with Gren's first reaction to being captured and it was fun getting into that. Let me know your thoughts in the comments :)
> 
> also since Runaan was shirtless when he was captured, I thought why not Gren?


End file.
